Game layer
The game layer '''(also referred to as the '''washater or simply the game) is a set of rules superimposed over reality analogous to those found in a tabletop game. The game layer has apparent omniscience and the ability to cause physical effects in the real world, as long as the player (Juniper Smith) completes quests, defeats enemies and makes use of stat points tied to his physical and mental characteristics. Uther Penndraig might have had a version of the game layer, which he referred to as the "Knack". According to Speculator Masters, he could learn any language, trade or magic in a single day - but Juniper thinks the game layer is something different. Level ups The game layer has something like a hidden experience meter that fills up when Juniper defeats enemies or completes quests. Once the meter becomes full, Juniper levels up, with multiple results: *Juniper is fully healed, from minor damage to illnesses and missing body parts. This healing effect does not extend to soul damage. *Juniper gets two stat points per level (plus five additional stat points upon reaching level 10). He can spend these points to increase his stats. *Juniper experiences an addictive burst of pleasure that increases in intensity each level. At higher levels, these can cause him to abandon all rational thought in the sole pursuit of further level ups. This effect can be palliated with soul magic or removed entirely with spirit magic. *Juniper's body emits a golden burst of light that kicks off some wind. He also hovers a little, maintaining momentum. The experience needed to level up apparently increases with level (or, possibly, quests and enemies give progressively less points), making it harder and harder to level up with time. Stats Stats '(also referred to as attributes) determine the physical (PHY), mental (MEN) and social (SOC) abilities of the player. There are three superstats, each composed of three substats, plus LUK, a stat independent of the rest. The stats are arranged and defined as follows: }} Stats can be increased through points given in level ups. Incresing a superstat takes two points, which increases the superstat and each of the substats by one, or a substat can be increased with a single point; a generalist/specialist trade-off. Stats are loosely connected to physical reality, being more closely related to the effect the player has on the world (for example, Juniper has strength beyond what his body's muscles should be able to do), though increasing physical stats does have a cosmetic effect on the body. The mental stats work to preserve the player's personality, switching from making the player smarter to simply injecting knowledge into their brain once their MEN goes over a certain threshold. |27497037|36|In Which Juniper Stares At His Character Sheet}} In addition to the stated description, the LUK stat also grants the player some degree of elf luck, which manifests as a slight precognitive danger-sense accompanied by a concrete path of action to avoid that danger. Skills The game layer immensely boosts the learning speed of anything it considers one of its 256 skills. At the time of Juniper's arrival, 82 of those skills had already been excluded, presumably by Uther Penndraig, and only 40 can be used at a time, swapped in and out with the application of Soul magic. |29584449|64|In Which Juniper Stares At His Character Sheet, Again}} The game conceptualizes skills for companions, presumably for the purpose of symbiosis, but they don't have the same limits Juniper's have. Many of the skills are tied to Aerbian magics (like Wards or Steel Magic) or normal physical skills (like Climbing and Unarmed Combat), but a few are almost exclusively for roleplaying purposes (like Woodworking and Weaving). Skills can be leveled up through regular use, though they will level up faster when they're used in threatening situations, and to a ludicrous degree when they're needed to survive. Skills can only be leveled up to level 20 through amateur training, which Juniper considers the equivalent to a graduate degree, while he estimates level 40 akin to postdoc. Skills are tied to their primary and secondary stats, and their levels are capped by them: three times the primary stat or five times the secondary stat, whichever is lower. It is occasionally possible to raise skills past their caps using entads, virtues, afflictions, spells or other special circumstances. Skills have five or six virtues, which are tied to specific levels (common thresholds are levels 10, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100) and boost certain aspects of the skill, unlock related abilities that could not be easily learned otherwise, or, at higher levels, physically impossible ones. There are also combo virtues that unlock more unique abilities, but they require several skills that work in concert leveled up past specific thresholds. Character Sheet The game layer comes with a character sheet that lists Juniper's attributes and skills, seen whenever he closes his eyes for more than three seconds. This is the current state of his sheet as of Chapter 172: Quests Quests are tasks given by the game layer which can, when completed, potentially lead to level ups. The mechanism by which the game creates quests is opaque, but generally they appear when someone tells Juniper something that potentially involves him, or when they ask him to do something. There are some quests that come in parts, with a new quest following a previous quest's completion, as well as meta-quests comprised of subquests. Juniper theorizes that quests don't necessarily need to have reasonable objectives - just possible ones. Quests have historically scaled up to Juniper's power, but there's no hard evidence the pattern will hold. Companions and Loyalty Up to seven people people (as determined by the game layer) can become companions to Juniper, part of his kharass, an elf term for groups of people cosmologically linked to each other through a theme. Amaryllis, Fenn and Grak theorize that theme might be 'princesses', for a loose application of the term. Companions only become visible on the game's interface once Juniper increases their loyalty, so there's no way to know about them in advance. Loyalty goes up seemingly when the companion in question changes the way in which they view Juniper - though the specific mechanism is somewhat opaque. Certain unique game features are unlocked upon reaching specific loyalty thresholds: *'Loyalty lvl 2': The interface now displays a brief but important biography of the companion. *'Loyalty lvl 10': A companion passive is unlocked, usually "Twinned Souls" - this allows Juniper to visualize a link to the companion's soul while using Soul magic. Valencia instead unlocked "Infernal Capture", the Six-Eyed Doe unlocked "Six-Eyed", and Bethel unlocked "Full House". *'Loyalty lvl 20': A second companion passive is unlocked, usually "Symbiosis". Valencia was the exception to this role - she unlocked "Soul Capture" instead. *Companions sometimes come with a companion quest, an important quest that relates closely to their past and circumstances. Once such a quest is completed, it seems to unlock another passive. Only Grak's quest has been completed, unlocking "Wardproof". The companion biographies are as follows: Full details of the companion passives are as follows: Fenn is a loyal companion, now formally part of your kharass, and will never lag behind you in relative power, so long as she is a member of your party.|27276375|31|The Loyal Elf}} Valencia is a loyal companion, now properly part of your kharass, though she is still without a soul. The non-anima is grasping, reaching, an unnatural construct trying to find its way in the world. Power has, for the first time in her life, found its way into her hands.|30523323|68|Seeing Red}} Any attempt to use any system in a non-standard way will be considered one degree more reasonable than it otherwise would be. Any existing virtues, entads, or effects that specify a degree of reasonableness are increased by one degree of reasonableness in your favor (calculated after all other effects). The Layman will look more favorably on your attempts to argue definition.|39472081|139|Piece of Mind}} Bethel knows the location of every entad inside her, even if she wouldn’t otherwise. Bethel can use the powers of any entad inside her, so long as it remains inside her.|38396531|127|Full House}} You and Fenn are connected on a deeper level now, with the last vestiges of reluctance stripped away. When together, you may both use either your own skill, or half the skill of the other, rounded down, whichever is higher.|29960013|66|The Long Night}} If Valencia has access to a soul, the anima exa, she can imbibe it in order to take whatever power it possesses, similar to the Essentialist practice of Soul Scaphism, but with more breadth and depth. Duration depends largely on how intensively she uses the soul in question.|32597586|86|Headwater}} Grak can selectively ignore wards that would apply to di, the things da wears and carries, and up to one other person (at a time). This ability activates automatically when the effect of the ward would be undesirable and can be selectively applied to any ward Grak chooses.|39069599|137|Darili Irid (Chapter)}} }} Virtues and Afflictions Sometimes, depending on Juniper's actions, the game layer decides to reward him with a virtue (not to be confused with skill virtues) or punish him with an affliction. Afflictions can also come from illnesses, emotional states or status effects. Virtues give positive skill or stat boosts, while Afflictions do the opposite. Afflictions can level up, which increases their negative effect. “How is that cowardice?” I asked, but I soon realized the answer. I’d gotten ‘Cowardice’ when I had run away from the girl getting attacked by four zombies, right when I’d landed. Here I had been presented with another girl running from both the scary guys with mohawks and a monster, and I hadn’t even spared a thought to running to her rescue. “That’s not cowardice, that’s selfishness, if anything,” I said to the air. There was no response, not that I had expected one.|25816869|2|Thickenings}} The mechanism by which the game layer decides when to reward or punish Juniper is unknown, though it seems it punishes passive or unheroic play. A full list of virtues is as follows: *Ruthless: Unknown effect. Unlocked when Juniper snapped the rope, letting half of Fireteam Blackheart fall to their deaths. Taken away when he unlocks Conscientious. *Conscientious: Flattery +5, Romance +5. Unlocked when Juniper gracefully told Clara to leave the room so she wouldn't be caught in a fight between Juniper and Larkspur Prentiss. *Mercy: CHA+1. Unlocked when Juniper mercy killed Superbia Laquis, one of Larkspur's allies. A full list of afflictions is as follows: *Cowardice: No effect at level 1, WIS -1 and POI -1 at level 2. Unlocked when Juniper makes a particularly unheroic choice and taken away when he does a heroic one. *Broken Bone: No effect beyond the physical. Unlocked whenever Juniper has a broken bone. *Sprained Ankle: SPD -2, Athletics -5, Dodge -5. Unlocked whenever Juniper's ankle is sprained. *Rat Rot: END -1, CUN + 1. The only Affliction with a positive effect, unlocked when a rat scratched Juniper at Silmar City. *Blood Loss: END -1 at level 1; PHY -1 and END -1 at level 2; PHY -2, END -1, MEN -1 and SOC - 1 at level 3. Unlocked whenever Juniper is in a state of blood loss. *Hungry: PHY -1, MEN -1, POI -1 at level 2. Unlocked whenever Juniper is hungry. *Drained Bone: Unknown game effects. Bones become brittle. Unlocked whenever Juniper drains his own bones. *Goodly: Unknown game effects. Nudges Juniper's thoughts and actions in the direction of Good. *Overcapped: Skill will decay at 1 per 10 minutes until under cap. Applicable when putting skills over the stat cap with soul magic. *Double Overcapped: Unknown effect. Applicable when putting skills over twice the points of the stat cap. *Skilled Trade: Skill will decay at 1 per 10 minutes until returned to baseline. Applicable when putting points in skills with soul magic. *Scaphism: Skill points from soul scaphism will decay at 1 per 10 minutes. Applicable when draining skills and using the points using soul magic. *Griefstricken: MEN -1, SOC -2. Unlocked when one of Juniper's Companions died. *Bad Dreams: Juniper gets nightmares for weeks that fade away with time. A consequence of wearing the Crown of Malingering Thorns. Achievements Achievements are notifications received as part of Juniper Smith's game layer upon completing an optional milestone or performing actions recorded by the game as special or unique. Juniper theorizes they're largely jokes at his expense, reminders from the Dungeon Master that his life isn't truly his own. It's unknown whether or not Achievements grant any experience points upon completion, or if they're purely cosmetic. Settings The settings page is a semi-hidden portion of the game layer that Juniper may access by inputting the beginning of the with his eye movements. The function of the majority of the options is to control the degree to which Juniper's life on Aerb plays like a video game or tabletop game rather than a bare, real-life experience. Some options are locked. The current settings for Juniper, as of chapter 10, are such that dying on Aerb is almost as impactful as dying would have been on Earth: he has one and only one 'life' according to the game, he has no opportunity to retry or to do anything over should he die, and death on Aerb means the death of his real life body. These settings cannot be undone. However, there is one key difference - Juniper has checked the Helldiver option, meaning that should he die, he will continue to exist for an indefinite period of time in one of the nine thousand hells. Juniper is also locked out of the mapping, fast travel, and quest marker features due to Verisimilitude Mode being enabled, a setting that also cannot be undone. However, Juniper has access to numerical representations of his health and mana points, and he also receives information from the game layer's quest logging that, in some cases, he otherwise would not have had.